Lowell Ganz (born August 31, 1948 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) is an American

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, television writer, and

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon ...

. He is the long-time writing partner of Babaloo Mandel. Ganz grew up in

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, attending Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village. He dropped out of college and moved to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

to pursue a career writing for

sitcoms A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new ...

, starting with '' The Odd Couple''. From there, he moved on to writing for the TV series ''

Happy Days ''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, it was one of the most su ...

'' and created two of its spin-off series, ''

Laverne and Shirley ''Laverne & Shirley'' (originally ''Laverne DeFazio & Shirley Feeney'') is an American sitcom television series that played for eight seasons on ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of ''Happy Days'', ''Laverne & Shirley'' sta ...

'' and '' Joanie Loves Chachi''. In 1982, Ganz and Mandel teamed up with ''Happy Days'' actors

Ron Howard Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of '' The Twilight Zone''. ...

and

Henry Winkler Henry Franklin Winkler, OBE (born October 30, 1945), is an American actor, comedian, author, executive producer, and director. After rising to fame as Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli on the American television series '' Happy Days'', Winkler has ...

to make their first film, the low-budget comedy '' Night Shift'', which was also actor

Michael Keaton Michael John Douglas (born September 5, 1951), known professionally as Michael Keaton, is an American actor. He is known for his various comedic and dramatic film roles, including Jack Butler in ''Mr. Mom'' (1983), Betelgeuse in '' Beetlejuice'' ...

's first film; Howard signed on because he wanted to start directing while Winkler wanted to move away from his image as the Fonz. Ganz's second film outing, '' Splash'', made stars of

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

and

Daryl Hannah Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American actress and environmental activist. She made her screen debut in Brian De Palma's supernatural horror film '' The Fury'' (1978). She has starred in various movies across the years, i ...

and earned him an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination for

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...

. Ganz and Mandel went on to write several other films, four more of which were also directed by Howard, and one of which had

Penny Marshall Carole Penny MarshallBorn Carole Penny Marshall in 1943, as per ''My Mother Was Nuts, a Memoir'', p. 10; . Copyright 2012 (October 15, 1943 – December 17, 2018) was an American actress, director and producer. She is known for her role as ...

, who starred in ''Laverne and Shirley'', as director. Four of their films have featured

Billy Crystal William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. ...

, three have featured

, two have featured

, and two are about

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

. Ganz and Mandel are also widely used as Hollywood

script doctor A script doctor is a writer or playwright hired by a film, television, or theatre production company to rewrite an existing script or improve specific aspects of it, including structure, characterization, dialogue, pacing, themes, and other eleme ...

s, known for their reliability and fast turnaround time. Ganz lives in Los Angeles with his wife of more than 25 years. They have three children.

Screenwriting credits (in Collaboration with Babaloo Mandel)

*'' Night Shift'' (1982) *'' Splash'' (1984) - Oscar nomination for

*''

Spies Like Us ''Spies Like Us'' is a 1985 American spy comedy film directed by John Landis, and starring Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Forrest and Donna Dixon. The film presents the comic adventures of two novice intelligence agents sent to the Soviet ...

'' (1985) *''

Gung Ho ''Gung ho'' () is an English term, with the current meaning of "overly enthusiastic or energetic". It originated during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) from a Chinese term, ( zh, hp=gōnghé, l=to work together), short for Chinese I ...

'' (1986) *'' Vibes'' (1988) *'' Parenthood'' (1989) *'' City Slickers'' (1991) *'' Mr. Saturday Night'' (1992) *''

A League of Their Own ''A League of Their Own'' is a 1992 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Penny Marshall that tells a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). The film stars Tom Hanks, Geena ...

'' (1992) *'' Greedy'' (1994) *'' City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold'' (1994) *''

Forget Paris ''Forget Paris'' is a 1995 American romantic comedy film produced, directed, co-written by and starring Billy Crystal as an NBA referee and Debra Winger as an independent working woman whose lives are interrupted by love and marriage. It also st ...

'' (1995) *'' Multiplicity'' (1996) *''

Edtv ''EDtv'' is a 1999 American satirical comedy film directed by Ron Howard. An adaptation of the Quebecois film '' Louis 19, King of the Airwaves (Louis 19, le roi des ondes)'' (1994), it stars Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrels ...

'' (1999) *'' Where the Heart Is'' (2000) *''

Robots "\n\n\n\n\nThe robots exclusion standard, also known as the robots exclusion protocol or simply robots.txt, is a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the site they are allowed to visi ...

'' (2005) *'' Fever Pitch'' (2005) (adapted from the

Nick Hornby Nicholas Peter John Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for his memoir '' Fever Pitch'' and novels '' High Fidelity'' and '' About a Boy'', all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work ...

book) *''

Tooth Fairy The Tooth Fairy is a fantasy figure of early childhood in Western and Western-influenced cultures. The folklore states that when children lose one of their baby teeth, they should place it underneath their pillow or on their bedside table and t ...

'' (2010)

Selected television credits

*''

Hiller and Diller ''Hiller and Diller'' is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 23, 1997, to March 13, 1998. Premise Ted and Neil are two comedy writers with very different lives. Ted has an overachieving daughter among his three children, while Ne ...

'' - executive producer *'' Joanie Loves Chachi'' - creator, writer, and producer *''

'' - co-creator, writer, and producer *''

'' - writer and supervising producer *'' The Odd Couple'' - writer

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ganz, Lowell 1948 births Living people 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American screenwriters American male television writers Screenwriters from New York (state) Television producers from New York City Writers from Queens, New York